1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a history information anonymization method and a history information anonymization device for anonymizing history information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the number of network-connectable household electrical appliances or AV equipment for domestic use has been growing. Along with the growth, the possibility that cloud providers collect various types of history information, including operation history of household electrical appliances or AV equipment, through a network is under study. It is now expected that the collected history information is analyzed to provide services suited for individuals and is utilized in new product development and a marketing strategy.
When history information is provided to a third party, the information should be anonymized so that an owner of the data cannot be identified. Anonymization methods generally include a k-anonymity technique that processes data to prevent the narrowing of the number of persons to less than k, by, for example, deleting a characteristic attribute. The k-anonymity is described in International Publication No. WO 11/142327 and “k-Anonymity: A Model for Protecting Privacy”, International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems, 2002.